What the Cr(app)? LeftoverSwap

Don’t like leftovers but hate wasting food? Designed to help eliminate food waste, LeftoverSwap is “disrupting leftovers” so you can over-order with a clear conscience.

This is a joke… right?

NOPE

When you open the app, you can choose to either find food around you, or offer up your own leftovers. To find food, simply take a look at the map and see if anyone in your area has something up for grabs. Want that slice of pepperoni from Pagliacci? Contact the giver via the in-app messaging system and arrange the pickup. Didn’t finish that Pad Kee Mau from Jai Thai? Take a pic, title it, provide a description and wait for someone to capitalize on the fact that your eyes were too big for your stomach and you aren’t a leftovers person.

You can also offer up groceries you don’t think you’ll use or a piece of chewed gum and a few tic tacs. That’s right, people are abusing it. Why, you ask? Because they can. This app is completely unregulated. On their website, they state that they have no customer service team and urge people to follow their guidelines/use common sense by offering a few do’s and don’ts. Unfortunately, this hasn’t curbed the trolls’ behavior and as a result, LeftoverSwap has a reputation for improper use, profanity and a lot of other unsavory things.

Improper use isn’t the only issue with this app. What about the fact that you are eating a stranger’s food? You don’t know if they used a napkin or if they went to the bathroom and didn’t wash their hands. What if they sneezed on it? YOU WOULD NEVER KNOW.

This app has it’s heart in the right place I think, but the idea of picking up someone else’s leftovers for lunch just isn’t app(ealing) to me. What’s your opinion?